Lost And Forsaken - Forgotten Echoes of The Mining Colony
by Graphomaniac's Hell
Summary: Lost And Forsaken - Forgotten Echoes of The Mining Colony is the cycle of stories that will focus on what may have happened before arrival of the nameless hero to the mining colony. The cycle will feature custom characters and will focus on exploring lore of the early Gothic. Eventually I may write the story inspired by unrealeased sequel of the game.
1. On the Wings of Death - Chapter 1

Disclaimer – I am not the owner of Gothic universe, please don't sue me.

This day was one of the most crazy days since creation of the barrier. The signs in the heaven and on the earth harbinger that something evil is approaching. The winds whisper its name, the dark clouds mourn over the fate of humanity, the ground shakes in fear and the sun didn't rise this morning, lying asleep wrapped by the blanket of dark clouds. The old camp was filled with madness and anxiety. Everyone had a sense of the terrible danger emerging out of the darkness. Even the most sceptic among us, men who don't believe in the old babes' tales, would tell that the Colony was a place stripped out of time. A place dwelling in the void of cosmos, suspended between two hells.

Some of us didn't see anything beyond the whisper of the wind and the black clouds. But, the second part reported the presence of strange people. They say that these people were looking for something, or for someone. According to the witnesses these people wore black hoods. Those who looked at their faces saw a variety of scars and tattos, but they froze in fear penetrated by the gaze of the cultists. But, the testimony about the strangers vary among the witnesses. There is a part of witnesses that say they were performing desacrating rituals. Morever, the others say that the occultists sacrificed people in these rituals.

This is the part that got me interested. What the occultists were doing and what was their purpose. I have successfully reached a couple of the witnesses, however, I didn't learn anything new from the most of them. The exception was one of the hunters, Hank.

Hank said that today he went hunting with other huntsmen. He also mentioned that they wanted to kill shadowbeasts because of the amount of meat it is possible to extract from them. He teamed up with two other guys who were looking for the fur and horns. However, their search went south. They couldn't find shadowbeasts in the internal area of the colony, so, they went exploring the outer area. After they sneaked through the canyon of the trolls, they were caught by a fog. Here, Hank mentioned that the fog appeared out of nowhere. He suggested that it was a trap planned before, as one of the hunters vanished. The second hunter suddenly remembered the place where shadowbeasts go to breed in the period of the mid-summer. The two hunters went to the mentioned place, but when they arrived something was bizarre. Instead of the cave, plains or whatever, the sinister chapel stood before their eyes. I asked my interlocutor how did it look like.

Before Hank answered the question, he took a deep breath. He couldn't find the the right words to describe the object. When he approached the chapel he froze in fear. The unknown force entagled his feet to the ground for a moment. He looked at the chapel and he felt its blasphemous vibe. The top of the chapel seemed to reach highier than the clouds. The shape of the tower looks like as if it was built to celebrate an obscene deity. The witness also mentioned the cordon of people who were lead to the building. Here his statement ends. He thawed out of his fear and ran away.

Unfortunately, I couldn't ask him about the details, but this amount of information confirms my earlier suspicions. I have been working on this case for years now. But, only two months ago was I able to make ground-breaking progress. Tonight, however, I am going to end it once and for all. Before I will fly to my destination on the wings of death... I want to admire the bleak sunset and think about the past.


	2. On The Wings Of Death - Chapter 2

Disclaimer – I owe nothing

The spiral of my fall began with the addiction to swampweed. I smoked a lot, everyday. When I got up to work, when I returned from work. It gave such a pleasant feeling... It was the only thing that alleviated the symptoms of my depression, after my wife had died in aberrant circumstances. But, the dream never lasts too long. After a month I suffered another blow, the job I loved so much was lost. Deprived of the source of income, I tried to find another one.

The swampweed turned me into an optimist, while it deprived me of the ability to make a rational decision. I became the apostle of blind faith in goodwill of the fortune wheel. I wanted to win back what I lost, so, I decided to borrow money from the contemporary crime lords on the Cape Dun scene. I went to every single one and I signed my life away for the large sum of money. I used the money to buy more swampweed and gamble. I didn't even rent a house, so, I could smoke more fags. I played it Bogart, both in life and in the casinos. I was drunk with my new arrogant vision of life. There wasn't any sign of redemption, or salvation. I didn't win any game, but, when my creditors asked me about the money, I said that everything is going in a good direction. But, what I tried to do was to just buy one more day. I have to admit that I was able to push the final moment to certain extent. But, everything has its limit. While I was giving the rest of my sanity to the drug, the crime lords planned how to dispose of me without an echo. I remeber the day when my integrity finally fell and shattered into a thousand of pieces. After another sleepless night I decided it was the time to leave Cape Dun and run for my life. I remember that the guards were somewhere else. So, I looked at the sun burning red with tears in my eyes, and I merged with the wilderness. For days I was wandering around the forested areas of central Myrtana.

My consciousness faded for an indefinite amount of time. The last thing I remember before the blackout is the sight of swamps and the amorphous light of the ominous star, Polaris. The star reigned over the vast expanses of the galaxy. Its crimson light was noticeable in its every corner, evoking the feeling of fear and madness.

The longer I stared at the treacherous light, the more I felt like I was drained. With each subsequent step the stimulus reaching me was becoming gradually dull. My sight was becoming dim and distorted, seeing only mere reflections.

Only when I looked at the sheet of water did I notice a terrible aberration. My eyes failed to show me my reflection in the water illuminated by the moon. I stood there for a few seconds staring at the water trying to rationalize what has hapened.

After I woke up from the deep sleep I found myself at the entrance of the graveyard. Suddenly, I was struck by an unnerving feeling. A chilling wave passed through my spine, accompanied by whistleblowers' alarms.

In spite of the advice, I crossed threshold of the graveyard, which resulted in me being where I am. My own curiosity prevailed over my common sense and sent me to the world of darkness and perdition. The graveyard looked normally only on the surface. Nothing that I had seen didn't deviated from the norm. All the red flags I have felt, were the result of the tranquility dwelling in this place.

The cemetery had the only path forward, surrounded by the headstones from both sides. Its size exceeded normal, it stretched beyond my sight fading with the horizon. The sky was slowly changing its colors from the purest shade of blue to the scarlet red. When the burning star hid before the horizon I entered the cemetary.

Striding forward I was looking at the headstones. This way I wanted to check how old the graveyard really is. The headstones themselves were richly decorated and they looked like as if they were made from an expensive material. Moreover, many of the headstones had empty frames in them, which meant that the paintings were stolen, or removed for some reason.

The writings on the graves weren't helpful either. Every inscription was written in the alphabet I couldn't decipher. Before I would get lost in the sea of graves I returned to the main route. But, the biggest revelation was to mark its presence.

While I was going back, I noticed that one grave had a painting on it. The painting was a portrait of a famous nobleman coming from the age of the early kingdom. It took a second to process information, but the shot was accurate. I remembered his name, deeds, rise and fall. Weiss, one of the most cruel people Myrtana has known. He was one of two generals on king Gesalec's court. He held the position of general during one of the most dangerous years to the crown. The kingdom was divided into east and west. However, in the end the kingdom was united by Gesalec who wore the crown with the symbols of east and west as the sign of unity.

Weiss achieved victory because he ordered to kill all people after he captured a village or city. In the later stages of war, when the east suffered heavy casualties, citizens opened the gates of their cities and the soldiers gave up. They didn't want to share the same fate as their brothers in arms. Besides, the war was already lost. The east was plagued by a famine, all social fabric imploded. Roads were full of bandits who were waiting to kill and steal.

Some groups were so strong that they pillaged cities, or even venture out to the western part of the kingdom. There were several daredevils who challenged Weiss and his army. They were all hung on a stake. The farther Weiss went east, the less regular armies he encountered and the more bandits he fought.

But the bandits weren't the only problem. When the chaos overthrown the order, a lot of sects worshipping the old ones appeared out of nowhere. They captured a large number of citizens. Some were turned into thralls and some were burnt on pyres as an offering to the omnipresent Cthulhu.

But the worst of these disaster were two diseases. The first was created by the mad alchemist called the devilution code. It reanimated infected people and caused them to eat flesh of the other people. The disease was distributed

through body fluids. The point of no return was crossed when the virus made a contact with the blood of the infected. It destroyed victims neo-cortex and limbic system, while taking control over the reptile brain. During the transformation the victim bleeds, vomits, cannot focus, is irritable and agressive. Just before the process is finished, the victim is put into coma and dies. A few hours after death they come back to life to haunt the living.

But, there was far more dangerous, albeit, far less infective disease. It is called shadow blend. Shadow Blend is a kind of symbiotic being that fuses with its host. This being infuses the host with a range of abilities like, nocturnal vision, shapeshifting and flying. It also enhances their strength as well as intelligence and personality. Unfortunately, all these benefits come at a certain cost. In order to coalesce with the host Shadow Blend mutates its host's cells. The mutation makes the host vulnerable to the sunlight, holy symbols and silver. These three elements cause the host's cells to degenerate and desintegrate through the chemical reactions. Another consequence of mutation is the need of providing the life essence to the symbiosite. Without the essence Shadow Blend won't survive and will die taking the host's life with it. The symbiosite also changes the brain as the devilution code. It changes the limbic system rendering it unable to feel emotions like empathy and shame. On the other hand it stimulates various negative emotions like hatred and anger. Shadow Blend also shuts down the right part of the neo-cortex and enhances the left part and the reptile brain.

Unlike the devilution code, which tries to infect as most people as it can, shadow blend works in a more subtle manner. It makes the partner more careful and aware of their surroundings. The partner hides in plain sight, in order not to risk detection, and feed relatively easily. That is why a small number of the infected lives to this day. Everyone trembles before their gaze and encountering one is a certain death.

The chaos of the imploding east was very hard to clean. The process of the unification took a lot of years to complete. But, the restoration of the eastern part of the kingdom took a few generations to finish.

After the kingdom had been unified Weiss died. Unfortunately, it is not known if it was natural death, or whether someone helped him. Legends say that Weiss was killed in uncertain circumstances. However, there is no agreement on who might have done it.

Some say that the king deputed the assassination because he was afraid of Weiss's power and influence on people. He might have thought that one day Weiss would have turned against him and seize the crown himself.

But there are other voices portraying Weiss as a necromancer. Some even think that he underwent the ritual turning him into vampire.

\- Different theories shine a light on different people. I thought.

And then I looked at this damn portrait again. Suddenly, a switch in my mind was pressed and the door to the void opened. The graveyard was the last place where I would like to be.

\- If this is true... I said to myself with my eyes closed.  
I had to know the answer. But, the reality felt like distorted dream. I was gazing at the graveyard with a lost sense of existence, from behind the veil. It is hard to say if the person who was looking away was really me, or was it a madman.

It took an indefinite amount of time to undertake the decision that lead to this moment. The madness, or the lust for knowledge shunned all the efforts undertaken by my common sense to spare me this voyage.

Little do I remember of this voyage. Everything was becoming darker, as the dusk went deeper, to finally transform into the night. I remember the exact moment when the crimson sun faded behind the horizon, only to be replaced by ether of the night.

With the death of light, wind started to blow. It was becoming stronger and stronger as I ran through the bricked path. The trees on the shoulder of the road went crazy. With no effort the children of Eol shook the branches of the weeping willows.

The light of the moon was distorted by the gathering clouds. Their thick, black fibers changed the color of the sky from pomegranate to void black. The light before me faded in the chasm of emptiness.

A minute later the rays of the moon were suppressed by the thick wall of rain falling from the sky. It hit the ground with extreme noise and immense fury. Even the wind blew harder with each passing second. The elements blended together to create cacophonous symphony, resembling the center of a cycelone.

The wind made running imossible. I had to slow down and cover my eyes. Breathing became harder with each passing minute. It fellt like a demon unleashed from hell wanted to reap my lungs apart. My legs became as heavy as two lead anvils. Each step drained me to the core.

The wind became to strong to even make a step. I stood in a slight stride leaning forward. I thought I heard how the wind tears willows piece by piece. I tried to turn around, but the wind was too strong. I raised my eyes to admire the dark sky, but I couldn't see through the veil of the shadows.

Suddenly the flash of thunder lit up the sky. The fuzzy nightmare became a new reality. I felt my blood was freezing in terror. My eye could no longer bear its immediate vision.

The thunder revealed the grim destination of my journey. A church with inverted cross at its top. Its menace dominated over supposedly hallowed graveyard. But, it looked younger than the gravyard, so, it must have been inhibited by all sorts of cultists and other trash.

Unwittingly I discovered the root of all blasphemy in the region. One can only imagine what may happen in such a place, a place where the death becomes alive.

The next thing I looked at was the entrance to the church. The gate resembled the heavy doors built in Roman style. I could notice illustrations showing godless scenes described in an ancient launguage, but I couldn't decipher them.

What was missed by my sight, was the man who was standing over a body. From second to second everything became even more obscure. The very presence of this man evoked the blackest feelings in me. I felt like the shadow of terror takes over my body and seizes me in the artic grip.

This being knew that I was here. The man turned around and I saw his face. Two fangs protruted from his mouth. His skin was pale as the skin of the deceased.

It was an unexpected strike of illumination. It was truly the place when the death becomes alive. As soon as the sky returned to primeval darkness, I lost my consciousness. I couldn't bear the tension anymore. 


End file.
